“All I have learned, I learned from books.” Abraham Lincoln On the occasion of 75th Independence day of India, we are glad to announce the launch of new initiative - Digital Book Library for the Blind & Print Disabled. The goal of the project is to convert print material (books) into digital format (epub) so that they are accessible by all the blind and print disabled individuals across the globe. The e-books will be part of Sugamya Pustakalaya, India's first and largest online library for the blind - with more than 20,000 ebooks available in 17 languages. Sugamya Pustakalaya is a collaborative effort of TCS, Daisy Forum of India and NIEPVD (National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Visual Disabilities), Government of India to end the book famine faced by people with print disabilities. This is a wonderful opportunity for all to get involved and make a difference in the life of all the visually challenged individuals.

Do you enjoy reading? Why not Read for a Cause? Every book you read can also feed underprivileged children. During this fundraising activity, we request you to pledge a minimum of 5 dollars per book read. In addition to pledges, parents can make a flat donation to our cause. This fundraiser runs from Sept 1st to October 31st. Anyone can register and you can either pledge a certain amount of money for each book or just make a flat donation. Register below. All proceeds go to feeding underprivileged children and donations are tax deductible. If you have any questions, contact Read-a-thon Fundraiser lead, Parth Ganga, through email: parth.ganga@gmail.com.

VT Seva volunteers come together to celebrate India's 75th Independence Day by singing National Anthem. Another wonderful project done by a few centers lead by Detroit team is encouraging youth to pick one freedom fighter and present a brief infographic about them. These posts were done starting Aug 1st. Please don't miss the link at the bottom of this blog. “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high, where knowledge is free. Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls. Where words come out from the depth of truth, where tireless striving stretches its arms toward perfection. Where the clear stream of reason has not lost it's way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit. Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever widening thought and action. In to that heaven of freedom, my father, LET MY COUNTRY AWAKE!” ― Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali: Song Offerings "Every citizen of India must remember that... he is an Indian and he has every right in this country but with certain duties"- Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel Tribute to Bharath More info

Elementary School Public Speaking Public Forum What is Public Forum? 2 teams debate against each other over a topic, called a “resolution” These resolutions are usually policy related What do we teach? Teach Debate Terminology (either separately or whenever we are teaching) Case: Cover CWI Method, Explain Speaking Etiquette, Argument Formation What skills will you learn? With Public Forum being a partner event, you'll surely learn communication, collaboration, and overall teamwork Organization Critical thinking PF will help you better understand vocab, arguments, and crafting essays –through building cases, and rebuttals, and countering your opponent's argument– which will help you on the SAT and in college!!! Lincoln Douglas Extemporaneous Speaking Humorous/Dramatic Interpretation What is HI/DI? This is a speech category in which the competitor will use a script from a book or movie and act it out! Pretty simple right? Well it's not so easy. Here's the catch, you have to be all the actors at the same time using different voice impressions, different body languages, and different attitudes to sell it off and for the story to make sense. What do we teach? We teach you how to control your tone, your pitch, how to improvise, to be more aggressive, to be LESS aggressive and everything else it takes to be a good actor and best of all how to be funny, or how to be dramatic. What skill will you learn These 2 events can greatly build public speaking skills and also confidence in situations under the spotlight It is also a great way to express yourself You can also gain tremendous skills in acting which can help you a long way and can get you into school plays and many more great opportunities! For information on our VT Seva supported Schools for Tribals - Tribal schools | Vtsworld If you would like to pay by Zelle - please transfer using treasurer@vtsworld.org and send the receipt to sanantonio.director@vtsworld.org - The Registration form also accepts PayPal.

This unique program offers a great opportunity for high school students to develop leadership skills and receive guidance from prominent and industry leading experts. This leadership program delivers an excellent learning experience for students to understand and gain perspective in the careers they like to pursue in future. During each session, two guest speakers will share and discuss their experiences in leadership. After a short Q&A with each speaker, the students will be presented with a case study and will have until the next day to solve and present the solutions as a team. Presentations will be judged by a panel based on guidelines that will be shared shortly. Eligibility Criteria: Must be in high school (Grade 9 - 12) Dates: 08/01 - 08/10 Timings: 1 PM - 5PM Total of 40 hrs training Fees: $75 (Fee collected is donated to local charities) Payment link will be shared post registration Thank you so much and we hope to see you soon!

VT Seva (Volunteering Together for Service) is organizing Ra:ga, our annual dance and musical performance festival in Bay Area. We would like to personally invite students of your prestigious school to participate in the event. Due to current Covid restrictions, this will be an online performance event, spread over 4 weekends in September. In 2019, we had 15 schools participate with more than 40 participants ! Why participate ? In 2020- art competition, we had ~19,500 viewers from 23 countries ! ( link to winners is HERE ). No other platform provides this wide range of audience from so many countries. In 2019, we had 15 schools participate with more than 40 performers. Scroll down below to view the pictures ! Let's make 2021 a grand success ! Show case your talent as never before to a large audience ! We are connecting with more than 100 schools in and around Bay Area (all the way to Sacramento, Roseville) ! Avail this opportunity to showcase your talent worldwide. Date: September 4, Sept 18, Sept 19, Sept 25 & Sept 26 Timings: 11 am - 3 pm Show your individual talents ! Group performances ! Music, Dance, Vocal - it's a dance and music performance showcase ! Don't miss-out Registration, rules and other details: Rules: Participation is from a dance and music school only (no solo performance from independent candidates, not associated with a school) Please register for the event and each school gets a 30 min time slot for your performances. Ra:ga team will contact you on your allocated time. Once you register, school can decide who can participate and how long the performance will be. Record the performance with your phone in a landscape mode. Ensure participant is in the center of the frame. For group performances, ensure the entire group fits into the frame. Combine all performances in a single file for a total of maximum 1/2 hour. If you have challenges with combining the performances, please send the files and we can combine it for you. Upload the file to a google drive and send us the link. WE will download the file You can have as many performances as you want in the total 1/2 hour slot you have selected. Ra:ga team will work with you on the receipt of the video files after registration Our feed a student program: Each year VT Seva supports both tribal and visually challenged students for free education and free food. Your support via programs like these help us maintain their support and future. We highly encourage you to see the videos below from our schools and colleges in support of this program. Each dollar you donate goes directly to the cause. VT Seva is a non-profit organization run by volunteers. VT Seva in a non-profit organization with primary focus to teach self-reliance to underprivileged and visually impaired students from low socio-economic backgrounds by providing them with boarding, education and empowerment. Our organization is active in promoting cancer awareness and immediate responders for any natural disaster that occurs around the world. Apart from our national activities, our Bay Area Chapter conducts local activities to promote the spirit of volunteerism in our youth for their participation and leadership skills. Please contact us for any questions at naatyaraag@gmail.com ThanksRa:ga Team Below is our 2019 live dance and music content ! Below is our 2019 live dance and music content ! March 30, 2019VT Seva Bayarea conducted first Annual Dance and Music contest in Fremont. Event was a grand success with 15 schools and 40 participants around Bay Area to support our cause. 15 Schools, 40 participants ! We had great representation from esteemed judges with nearly 3 decades of experience in BayArea and India. Participants, parents and Judges were spellbound with the event arrangements. We were able to connect to our cause individually with most of the parents/Judges. They appreciated how important the cause is and how critical it is for all of us to be part of such noble cause. All the judges were really excited to make this an annual event and assured us that they would bring many schools around BayArea to make this even more successful in the coming years. See all photos here See all photos here Thank you ! Professional photographs courtesy of Amar Hariharan Tel: 916-941-5592 amars.snaps@gmail.com Professional photos are here: All photos

Date: June 6, 2021 Time: 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM What an exciting way to start off our first in-person volunteering outdoors today (06/06/21) by our VT Seva Detroit Volunteers helping in Yard Beautification at Penrickton Center for Blind Children in Taylor, MI. All our volunteers followed the COVID-19 Safety protocols during the entire stay there. Penrickton center has a very beautiful front yard and our volunteers were helping by pulling weeds, raking, edging the grass around driveway areas and finally cleaning the front yard. The center had all the necessary tools and gears to work with volunteers. While all of us were working at the yard, we were also greeted by the 3-mile-long Bikers who were 'Riding for a Reason' in support of the Penrickton Center. There were over 500 Bikers riding through the street outside the Center escorted by the Cops on Motorbikes as well. We were thrilled to wave at them and appreciate their support for the full 10 minutes of their Bike Caravan . We were also given an opportunity to tour their facility by the center coordinator Chelsea. Volunteers were split into 2 groups and were taken inside following all the Covid-19 safety protocols. It was a great opportunity for all of us to see their facility, to know more about the Penrickton Center. It was enriching to learn how they provide great care and support to the visually challenged, multi-disabled children and their families . Chelsea took us through a day in the life of the children at their center. She was kind enough to show us the Kitchen, Bed Rooms, Activity & Therapy Rooms, Educational and Batch rooms that were all adorned with lovely painting on the wall mostly painted by volunteers. Their Childcare Workers & Staff go above & beyond to help teach important Life Skills to the challenged children to make them independent. We were shown a video about the Penrickton Center Children and were so touched seeing those children's faces and hearing their stories. Due to COVID restrictions, we were unable to meet the children this time but they promised us future tours whenever the situations come back to normalcy. Our volunteers could very much relate to the whole experience at the Center since it is very close to what the children go through at VT Seva Nethra Vidyalaya institutions. These are our 13 VT Seva Detroit volunteers who attended today. Youth: Abhinav Suresh; Anand Brijesh; Anirudh Venbakkam; Nikhil Aerabati; Siddharth Tirumala Kanduri; Srihari Hebbar Adults: Asha K Puranam; Gopal Brijesh; Raghunath Aerabati; SrinathBabu Karnati; Sudheer Koppu; Suresh Rajan; Vanitha Gopalan Kudos to all their wonderful help & time. The Scorching sun didn't make them to stop their excitement and all their volunteering spirit. AS ALWAYS, YOUR SUPPORT IS OUR STRENGTH TO SERVE Please check out our Facebook page for more pictures and other news from VT Seva Detroit.

AUGUST 14TH, 2021 from 9:00 AM onwards One of the most awaited Sports events of VT Seva is back in action in 2021. Unfortunately, 2020 turned out to be a complete washout due to the COVID pandemic. What better way to get yourself outdoors than participating in the VT Seva Volleyball & Throwball Tournament benefiting visually challenged children. Please mark your calendar for Aug 14th, 2021 from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM at Founders Park, Farmington Hills . All proceeds from the event will go towards the education, food, and clothing for visually challenged children of Nethra Vidyalaya. Join us in making this event a successful one either as a Player or an audience. Lunch & beverages will be provided at a nominal price. Register as a Team or an Individual Player by clicking here Rules & Regulations: All Teams/Individual Players must go through the rules & regulations and sign the Waiver Form. COVID Waiver: All participants must submit the COVID Waiver form as well: Please click the link below for the form. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc3jfSevzuAIxUG-hlb8aNw_loG4Hob4MbhoZyr5Ls0by2O9A/viewform?fbclid=IwAR07HSVFMBpwcYMOsPEBm-qL6mvSiaPFyJfHVmwhMFByE4rXs3TBXoNnYGU

VT Seva Settle invites you to participate in Virtual Walk-a-thon July 18th - August 14th, 2021. Check out the details and join us. Instructions on How to Register Register & Track Your Progress

VT Seva Bay Area will be conducting a 4 week math and python course from July to August! These classes will contain 8 sessions each that are 1.5 hours. The classes will be taught by our youth volunteers for upcoming 4th to 7th graders. The math course will develop your child’s math skills for the upcoming school year! This course will create a challenging but helpful environment teaching them the introduction to math for their grade. The python course is meant to foster a passion in coding and python in general. The course will teach the introduction to python such as data types, lists, statements, and much more! All proceeds from this course will go towards feeding visually challenged students in India. For one visually challenged student to be provided meals everyday it costs 120 dollars. Our goal is to help provide meals for 50 students! Signing up your kids to our courses will not only help them excel in school but benefit the underprivileged children in India. Please do not hesitate to contact us regarding any questions or concerns!! Sahasra Vellanki: 4084105495 Anvith Konda: anvith.konda@gmail.com

My name is Anoushka Kunder and I am currently a senior at JP Stevens High School in Edison New Jersey. I am very passionate about women's issues. Instead of sitting in silence or virtue signaling on social media, I want to learn more about the economic and social inequities in our society and understand them in a nuanced way. I am particularly interested in delving deeper into the gender biases and the experiences of marginalized women who face discrimination on multiple fronts in the South Asian community. I actively participate and volunteer for several causes surrounding social justice issues, international affairs, and women’s issues. My latest project focuses on the movement to end period poverty, broadly defined as limited access to menstrual hygiene products, including sanitary products, toilets, and waste management. In many regions of the world, women and young girls are unable to afford sanitary products either due to financial hardships or a lack of accessibility. A few years ago, I viewed the Hindi movie "Pad man" highlighting the struggles of an Indian woman from a less fortunate, remote village who was condemned to sit in isolation from her family, eat from separate utensils and use a dirty rag during "that time" of the month. The shame and stigma surrounding periods stems from a lack of education and conversation surrounding the topic. Consequently, I wanted to educate myself and take action, I questioned; Does this happen only in India? Asia? What about the rest of the world? Unfortunately, I discovered that the problem persists in varying degrees all over. In today’s world, period products are considered a privilege to many rather than a basic necessity. A study conducted by U by Kotex reveals that one in four people struggled to purchase female hygiene products due to lack of income. Due to financial hardships one in five women miss work or school since they can’t afford these products. The women associate their periods with shame, disappointment, and depression. According to UNICEF , in India, only 12% of menstruators have access to sanitary products, leaving the rest to use unsafe materials like rags and sawdust as an alternative. After continuing to read up on Arunachalam Muruganantham, the man who inspired the movie “Pad man”, I found that he devised a low-cost machine that could be operated with minimal training and used cost effective natural and sustainable raw material. This machine allowed for new jobs to be produced, household income for many women, and affordable pads to enable many more women to live their livelihood during menstruation. The project - Drawing inspiration from Arunachalam’s model, I put forth a project proposal to VT Seva Mahila Arogya Vikas that involves manufacturing sanitary products in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India. In this place, we intend to procure raw materials, employ underprivileged women, and train them to operate the machines to manufacture and package sanitary napkins. These low cost (or free) sanitary napkins will be distributed to women in local slums and surrounding villages. Overall, this model offers livelihood, hygiene, dignity, and empowerment to women using a sustainable business framework. I truly want to thank VT Seva for believing and supporting the vision and guiding me through the process. Through this project, I hope to spread awareness on this issue, destigmatize periods, and genuinely make a change. If possible, we’d love it if you could donate to help us achieve our mission. Your support is crucial!

VT Seva Detroit Youth Board had a busy 2nd quarter. The team implemented 3 projects which were initiated by 3 Youth Board Members. ● Eco-Conscious Project ● Mother’s Day Greeting Card Project ● Father’s Day Greeting Card Project In addition to that, they celebrated their 2nd year anniversary with lots of live and recorded entertainment programs and a live game. ECO – Conscious Project: Since 1970, 𝑬𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒉 𝑫𝒂𝒚 has been celebrated to educate about and activate environmental awareness. The 𝑽𝑻 𝑺𝒆𝒗𝒂 𝑫𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒊𝒕 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒉 𝑩𝒐𝒂𝒓𝒅 joined this movement by learning about and creating awareness for the need to take care of our earth through our 𝑬𝒄𝒐-𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒄𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕. 24 Youth Board Members came together and exhibited their creativity and talent in creating media content towards environmental awareness This project was initiated by the youth board members Harish & Oviya . They've created videos, infographics, cartoons, comics... to persuade the public to be environmentally aware. Their creations have been posted on VT-Seva Detroit Facebook each day for the whole month of April 2021. 3 Projects conducted by the Youth Board in the 1st quarter of 2021 also reflected the need of 3R's Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. "𝑹𝒆𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒔𝒉 𝒃𝒚 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒖𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝑨𝒏𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒍 𝑺𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒕𝒆𝒓" "𝑹𝒆𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔 𝒃𝒚 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒍𝒚 𝒖𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝑭𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑪𝒂𝒓𝒆" "𝑹𝒆𝒄𝒚𝒄𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒃𝒂𝒈𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒃𝒖𝒕𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒐𝒅" One youth Board member Oviya reached out to her school to promote the 3R's campaign. She put together a video with the tips to follow 3R's which was played in her school TV's on the hallways for the whole day on Earth Day. Overall the Youth Board members learned a lot through this project and started following those tips in their everyday life and promoted it to the rest of the world too. Youth Board Members who participated in this project are Abhinav, Amogh, Anand, Eashan, Harish, Hiba, Nikhil, Varun, Nirvan, Oviya, Rishi, Rohan, Saisha, Sanjana, Shreya, Sanjit, Sathvik, Shruthi, Siddharth, Srihari A, Supraja, Tarun, Yasaswini, Yug Eco-Conscious project video created by Youth Board Member: Eesha Mother’s Day Greeting Card Project: 𝑴𝑨:𝑻𝑯𝑹𝑼 𝑫𝑬:𝑽𝑶: 𝑩𝑯𝑨𝑽𝑨 Revere your Mother as god 𝑯𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒚 𝑴𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓'𝒔 𝑫𝒂𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆!!! “𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐 𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒕 𝒔𝒐 𝒔𝒐𝒇𝒕 𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓’𝒔 𝒍𝒂𝒑, 𝒏𝒐 𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒂𝒔 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒔 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒆, 𝒏𝒐 𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒔𝒐 𝒇𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒐𝒕𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒑𝒔.”—𝐀𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐬𝐨𝐧 The VT Seva Detroit Youth Board celebrated Mother's Day with the mothers in senior centers in Livonia, MI. 44 volunteers came together and created 163 beautiful hand made greeting cards to wish them a happy Mother's Day. Cards have been distributed to 3 senior centers 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐫, 𝐎𝐚𝐤𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐖𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧 and they were so happy to receive the cards! This project was initiated by the Youth Board Member 𝑯𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒉. 44 Youth Board Members who worked on this project are Abhinav, Adhvaith, Aishani, Anagha, Anand,Ananya R, Anjana, Anurag, Arya, Dhanya, Eashan, Harish, Hiba, Ishani, Kaavya, Neha, Niharika, Nikhil A, Nikhil S, Nirvan, Oviya, Pranav T, Rashmita, Risha, Rishi, Rohan, Sahasra, Sai Sriram, Sanjith, Sathvik, Shrikha, Shriya, Shruthi, Siddharth, Srihari A, Srihari H, Sravya, Supraja, Sveya, Tarun, Teja, Tanvi, Shruthi & Sanaa. They brought smiles to 163 wonderful moms from these 3 senior centers and made Mother's day special for them. Father’s Day Greeting Card Project: 𝑷𝑰𝑻𝑹𝑯𝑼 𝑫𝑬:𝑽𝑶: 𝑩𝑯𝑨𝑽𝑨 Revere your Dad as god 𝑯𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒚 𝑭𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓'𝒔 𝑫𝒂𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒅𝒂𝒅𝒔 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆!!! "𝑫𝒂𝒅𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒐𝒆𝒔, 𝒂𝒅𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒓𝒔, 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈 " - 𝑷𝒂𝒎 𝑩𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒏 The VT Seva Detroit Youth Board celebrated Fathers's Day with the dads in 3 senior centers in Livonia, MI. 44 volunteers came together and created 77 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 to wish them a happy Father's Day. Cards have been distributed to 3 senior centers 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐫, 𝐎𝐚𝐤𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐖𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧 and they were so happy to receive the cards! This project was initiated by the Youth Board Member 𝑯𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒉. 44 Youth Board members who participated on this project are Aishani, Anagha, Anand,Ananya R, Anjana, Anurag, Arya, Dhanya, Eashan, Harish, Hiba, Ishani, Kaavya, Neha, Niharika, Nikhil A, Nikhil S, Nirvan, Oviya, Pranav T, Rashmita, Risha, Rishi, Rohan, Sahasra, Sai Sriram, Sanjith, Sathvik, Shrikha, Shriya, Shruthi, Siddharth, Srihari A, Srihari H, Sravya, Supraja, Sveya, Tarun, Teja, Tanvi, Shruthi & Sanaa. They brought a smile to 77 wonderful dads from these 3 senior centers and made Fathers day special for them. Greeting card project video created by Youth Board Member: Sai Sahasra Please review VT Seva Detroit Facebook for more details on these events. https://www.facebook.com/vtseva.detroit/posts/4639396279420698 [Mother's day] https://www.facebook.com/vtseva.detroit/posts/4767373989956259 [Father's day] 2nd Anniversary Celebrations: The VT Seva Detroit Youth Board celebrated our 𝘁𝘄𝗼 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝗿𝘆 with an evening of family, fun, and festivity! We all met virtually and reminisced about many of the amazing volunteering events that the youth board has run over the past two years. Many of our talented youth board members then graced us with dance and song, showing off their special skills to all their peers in celebration of two years of service. We kicked off the program with a rendition of 𝗣𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗸𝗲 𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗺 𝗯𝘆 𝗛𝗶𝗯𝗮, followed by 𝗦𝗿𝗶𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗶 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝗮𝘁𝗵𝘃𝗶𝗸'𝘀 𝘃𝗲𝗲𝗻𝗮 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗮 𝗱𝘂𝗲𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗕𝗵𝗼 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗯𝗼. Next came 𝗥𝗮𝗴𝗵𝘂𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗶 𝗥𝗮𝗴𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗮 𝗥𝗮𝗷𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗺 𝗯𝘆 𝗦𝗮𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗿𝗮 on her violin. The 𝗩𝗧 𝗦𝗲𝘃𝗮 𝗨𝗦𝗔 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁, 𝗠𝗿. 𝗞𝗶𝗿𝗮𝗻 𝗩𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗹𝗮, delivered a motivational speech to all the youth board members, encouraging them to continue their service. A big thank you to Kiran ji for his encouraging words! Our youth board members 𝗞𝗮𝗮𝘃𝘆𝗮, 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗶𝘁𝗵, 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗵, 𝗔𝗯𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘃, 𝗦𝗮𝗻𝗷𝗮𝗻𝗮, 𝗢𝘃𝗶𝘆𝗮, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗡𝗶𝗸𝗵𝗶𝗹 recapped many of the community service projects that the youth board has run over the past two years. Next, 𝗢𝘃𝗶𝘆𝗮 performed a Bollywood dance to the song 𝗥𝗮𝗷𝘄𝗮𝗱𝗶 𝗢𝗱𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗶, followed by 𝗞𝗮𝘂𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗯𝗵'𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗠𝗲𝗴𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗮 𝗥𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗮. Our 𝗩𝗧 𝗦𝗲𝘃𝗮 𝗗𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗶𝘁 𝗩𝗼𝗹𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗖𝗼𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿, 𝗩𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗮 𝗝𝗶, gave us all a presentation about future events for RAAS 2021, an annual fundraising event run by VT Seva Detroit to support the Netra Vidyalaya schools for the visually challenged and tribal students. Her presentation was succeeded by two incredible instrumental performances! 𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗮𝘃 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝗔𝗯𝗼𝗴𝗵𝗶 𝗩𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗺 𝗼𝗻 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗻 and 𝗥𝗼𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝗔𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗔𝘆𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗮𝘅𝗼𝗽𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗲. 𝗡𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗷 𝗝𝗶, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗝𝗘𝗧 𝗠𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗮𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿, gave a guest speech, congratulating our youth volunteers on all their accomplishments and encouraging them to keep volunteering. A live performance of 𝗢𝗸𝗲𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗻𝘂𝘃𝗮𝗲 𝗯𝘆 𝗦𝗮𝗶 came after these guest speeches. 𝗛𝗶𝗯𝗮 then performed a dance to 𝗦𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗮 𝗗𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘆𝗮, followed by 𝗨𝗱𝗮𝘆𝗮'𝘀 playing of 𝗩𝗮𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗺 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗻 𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗸𝗲𝘆𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱. Our 𝗩𝗧 𝗦𝗲𝘃𝗮 𝗗𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗶𝘁 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗕𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿, 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝘆𝗮 𝗝𝗶, came on and spoke about future projects for our youth board. 𝗞𝗮𝗮𝘃𝘆𝗮 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝗮𝗻𝗷𝗮𝗻𝗮 then led a fun 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝘂𝗻𝘁 for all the attendees! Everyone was given the same list of 19 household items and two minutes to gather as many as possible. It was incredibly amusing and engaging! The 𝗩𝗧 𝗦𝗲𝘃𝗮 𝗨𝗦𝗔 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘆, 𝗦𝘂𝗱𝗵𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗝𝗶, gave us all an amazing speech recognizing all of the youth board's efforts and inspiring us to keep on giving back to their community. To finish off the night, the𝗩𝗧 𝗦𝗲𝘃𝗮 𝗗𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗶𝘁 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗦𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝗝𝗶 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗕𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝘆𝗮 𝗝𝗶 delivered a vote of thanks and a wrap-up to the fun-filled night! Additional Projects: In addition to the youth board-initiated projects, Youth Board members participated in Toy drive, Penrickton Mailing Supplies Project, Gardening help for Crossroads Community Garden, Yard beautification help for Penrickton Center. Blog Consolidated by Youth Board Member: Oviya

“ To plant a seed is to believe in tomorrow” - Audrey Hepburn Seeds for Tomorrow is an eco-fundraiser intended to not only support our local charities and businesses but also inspire our community to take up gardening and protect the environment. Our VT Seva volunteers are playing a vital role in this project by nurturing seeds into plants until they are mature enough to go to different homes and inspire service in the community. With the funds raised, we are supporting various charities and businesses in Austin. By inspiring our community to support our environment, we are helping to eliminate the use of chemicals, plastic packaging, and other toxins that pollute our earth. The versatility of plants allows for them to not only provide us food but to serve as bioplastic, medicine, paper, habitats, dyes, and much more! Knowing all that our earth has provided us to live every day with ease, and encouraging our community to preserve our earth is the least we can do to show our gratitude. Thank you to all of our volunteers who are taking part in this project and we hope to see more of you step forward and join this amazing cause! Lokavya Marreddy VTSeva Austin

Attention all Dance & Music Enthusiasts! The Austin VT Seva youth board is conducting a virtual musical event Beats For A Cause from Aug 6th-8th to support women in local and international communities facing cancer. This event is a chance for you to showcase your talents while supporting these incredible causes: The Breast Cancer Resource Center (BCRC), Austin VTS-Bharath Women’s Health Care COVID-19 Relief Aid in India. A diagnosis of breast cancer changes one’s life in an instant. BCRC strives to empower those affected by breast cancer with personalized support and compassion to help ease the path to recovery. BCRC envisions a future where no one has to face breast cancer alone. VT Seva has been instrumental in providing free health, cancer awareness camps, and served over 1 million women in India. How can you help? Showcase your talents for this event and fundraise as an academy or individual participant Music / Dance Schools & Individuals Who Would like to support by fundraising, please sign up here. REGISTER HERE If you are a director and are signing up your music/dance academy, we will provide the registration form to track your students' participation. (Send us your logo) and a fundraiser campaign link you can socialize among your contacts. If you are signing up as an individual participant, or would like to host a campaign to raise funds, you will be provided with a personalized fundraising link. Individual Participants - Showcase your talents for this event If you are an individual performer and want to participate, please register using the link below. The registration fee is $25 as an individual participant who is not fundraising. Individual Participants, please sign up here If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out using the contact information in the flyer above We thank the following Volunteers and the Music/Dance Academies for supporting this cause! Donate Want to join us in supporting the causes, please support by clicking the “Donate Here” button below. We thank you for your support!

VT Seva Detroit Youth Board 1st Walkathon VT Seva Detroit Youth Board is conducting its first-ever walkathon from June 19, 2021 - July 31, 2021. In-Person Finale Walkathon will be conducted in Shiawasee Park, Farmington on July 31, 2021. The detail will be shared later. Start the summer break by being healthy and support 2 causes. Our Bharath needs our support more than ever for the COVID-19 relief activities. When cancer becomes a part of one's life, there is a lot to worry about. Angels of Hope provides financial assistance to the Michigan families in need to ease the burden caused by the disease. All the proceeds go towards VTS-Bharath COVID-19 Relief Activities in India and Angels of Hope. Do you want to lead a team in the walkathon? All you have to do is sign up your interest in Team Lead Signup Link: http://bit.ly/VTSDetYBWalkathonTeamLeadSignup You can have your own team and motivate your team members to walk every day and stay healthy by registering in our Walkathon. Walkathon Registration Link: vtwalk.org We had a kickoff meeting on June 18, 2019. Many parents and youths participated in the kickoff meeting. Many youths signed up as Team Lead, come join us and support two different causes by being healthy.

Four youth volunteers from Dallas learnt about the hardships people are going through in India during COVID-19 second wave and extend their support for the relief aid. Lets learn in their own words: We, Krishna Charugundla (7th grade), Samanvita Meka (7th grade), Devayani Nagabhushan (7th grade), and Ram Bonthala (9th grade) live in Frisco and Plano, Texas. We have worked together and formed a bake sale to raise money for VT SEVA. We worked for one week and were able to donate $ 1000+. The cause of this bake sale was to raise money for the families that have been struck with the 2nd wave of Covid-19 and have been struggling and didn’t have the money to finance their treatment and other basic needs. How We Did It ? To do the bake sale we had to prepare a flyer explaining our cause, what we are selling, and our delivering date. We prepared an Excel sheet for taking orders. That night we took these items and went from door to door asking people to support us by purchasing our baked goods. This was repeated for the next two days (~50 times). Once finished we were finally able to start baking! We made lots and lots of batter and icing, after two days we started building an excessive amount of boxes and finished this step by packing the cupcakes and icing them. The next day we went out in the scorching hot sun to deliver a few and then the dripping rain! Finally, we came home knowing that in the past week we did something helpful to society! Why We Did It ? Helping others is something that makes people happy, and aiding people through a bake sale is what made us happy. All the steps to earn our money brought us all closer together. With the money we earned we are able to donate it to kids and their families who have been affected by the Covid - 19 second wave in India. By doing this we knew that we would be giving back to those in need, and this made us feel good. Our motivation for this act was to help people that needed support, and to help others to get back to living a healthy lifestyle. The whole process was something that taught each of us to give back to the community. The whole bake sale had lots of positives like serving the community, and growing closer! Conclusion All in all, this entire experience was so fun as we were able to volunteer for such a noble cause. The people that we met and the entire process was very enjoyable. Though the scorching sun and pouring rain was not very fun to put up against, we had to make sacrifices for the greater good. At one point, when we were delivering cupcakes, a lawn mower working in our neighborhood curiously came up to us and asked what we were selling. After we told him our cause and purpose of the bake sale, he bought a few cupcakes. The worker's curiosity and eagerness to help made us realize that we have to work together to fight this pandemic. Thank you to VT SEVA for bringing together today's youth to work together to help people struggling back in India and for this wonderful opportunity to put together this fun bake sale. Lemonade Stand: Taking their siblings as an inspiration, the little siblings Dhanwin, Tulsai and Abhiram wanted to do something to help India fighting COVID-19 second wave. They conducted a neighborhood lemonade sale and were able to raise $ 150 which they wanted to donate towards COVID-19 Relief Aid as well. They offered four varieties of lemonade which was appreciated and supported by the neighbors in the community. Learn more about VT Seva's ongoing relief aid activities - at https://www.vtsworld.org/post/supportindia and join us in supporting the activities.

About 100 VT Seva Dallas Youngsters are volunteering to lend their voices to empower the visually challenged by participating in " Lend Your Voice " ( LYV ) project to compile an audio library. More details on the program can be obtained by joining one of the two sessions: Session 1 - Monday, 7/14/2021 - 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM CST : https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZTU1NDJlZjItYzIzOC00YjkzLTk2ZDUtYWM4MDJlM2Y4ZDYx%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22d95e877d-e6c0-40c4-ab50-499cdece63d4%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22ff6d3b58-e9ba-465b-a9fc-55b639f69356%22%7d Session 2 - Tuesday, 7/15/2021 - 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM CST : https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZDA3M2JjZjQtMThlNC00ZmQ4LWFjODMtODE3MjUzOTFlYzgx%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22d95e877d-e6c0-40c4-ab50-499cdece63d4%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22ff6d3b58-e9ba-465b-a9fc-55b639f69356%22%7d